The Geocode Factory

October 22nd, 2013

Geocode Factory is a mapping component that allows you to display various types of Joomla! content on a Google Map. Geocode Factory can use data from Community builder (profiles), Jomsocial (profiles and Events), Sobi2, Mosets tree, SobiPro, Jevents, AdsManager, Joomla article, and GPS tools. The maps can be customized for each instance via templating and CSS and we provide many built in options like side bars, geolocation, radius parameters and many others!

With Geocode Factory Component, you can create an unlimited number of Google Maps (v3) or Openstreetmap (or other custom map). Each map has its unique parameters like zoom, zoom range, clustering, size, intro texts, radius search, locate me button (browser position for Android devices, iPhone, iPad, new browsers), etc… Any map can also be assigned to it’s individual menu item if desired or into a module position (free module available).

The capabilities of Geocode Factory are extended by use of “markersets”. Markersets are how the mapped data that shows on a particular map is defined and filtered. Creation of a markerset is very easy and multiple markersets can be displayed on the same map. For example if you wanted a map that displayed both the locations of your Jomsocial members and your SobiPro entries, Geocode Factory can do this!

Custom map markers can be used in Geocode Factory. A personal image or the profile avatar can be used as a marker icon. The markers can be linked by lines in multiple ways. For example you could show connection lines between Jomsocial friends or lines between Sobi entries and their owner. The combinations are endless! The markers are loaded as XML to increase performance instead of plain text javascript and a caching system is also an option.

The bubble (normal or tabbed) can contain any custom fields from the source component, an online status, avatar (icon for sobi2), streetview, distance from radius, waysearch, etc. The bubble is fully customizable with HTML statements, and loaded with a click with ajax to reduce the loading time.

You can mix profiles and points of interest on the same map (with different icons ans bubbles), for example, by showing the Sobi2 entries in a 50km radius from the logged user.

If you have existing profiles, it’s easy to fetch the geographical coordinates (geocode) for them by the user postal address (zipcode, street, country … etc). The process is launched in one click and the program divide the profiles in packages, to prevent max time execution errors. You can also silent geocode users during profile creation and edition. Google Apikey is no more needed.